


Where You Are

by Clockwork_Sky (failsafe)



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Episode Related, Episode Tag, Episode: s01e01 Children of the Gods (1), M/M, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-01-20
Updated: 2010-01-20
Packaged: 2017-10-10 20:01:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 668
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/103731
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/failsafe/pseuds/Clockwork_Sky
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What Jack is thinking when the Stargate comes back into his life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Where You Are

**Author's Note:**

> Fic done for [fandom_stocking](http://fandom_stocking.livejournal.com) 2009.

Jack had never been the kind of man that people considered a thinker.

He had the mind of a soldier, it was what he was good at.

At least, it was what he had been good at.

Somewhere along the line, Jack had become someone he hardly recognized.

When he had been a young man, he had believed that the military life would have gone on forever. He would have met an honorable death in a battlefield, serving his country.

When he had been a father, he had believed that one day, someday, the military life would be over, and he could spend the rest of his days playing catch with his little boy and watching him grow up. He would come home, he would live for his country and his family.

Then, all of those notions faded away with one bullet.

Not the bullet that was supposed to end his own life.

He was a soldier, that was what was supposed to happen.

Charlie was just a kid.

His kid.

Two years ago, right after it had happened, he had wanted to die for the first time in his life. He had wanted to die, rather than to meet death honorably.

Then some stupid, genius scientist—archaeologist, whatever, had screwed it up.

_"I don't want to die. And your men don't want to die, and these people certainly don't want to die. It's a shame you're in such a hurry to."_

Who was he to tell him how to live his life? Or when to want it to end?

Jack had decided, back then, that he didn't need to listen. He knew what he was doing.

He hadn't listened. He had lived.

On some planet so far away it was impossible to imagine, he had decided to live.

Somewhere so far away it was impossible to imagine, that stupid scientist was still out there.

He was happy. He had a wife, he was alive, and Jack knew he had helped to do that. And he was proud of it.

He had always been a military man, but somewhere along the line, he had just walked away from all of it—no regrets.

Up on a rooftop in cool Colorado night air, Jack pointed his telescope up to the sky, looking at the past.

Astronomy wasn't a half-bad hobby, and, as he pointed his telescope toward Abydos, he wondered briefly if that light he was seeing now had started its journey to Earth when those people still suffered under Ra, or if it had come fast enough, far enough, to have come from a time when those people were free.

He looked up to the sky, to the future, wondering how the present was now for the man who was the reason he had decided to live.

He heard the sound of someone climbing up to his perch, but he didn't care. He was busy.

"Colonel Jack O'Neill?" a voice asked.

"Retired."

"I'm Major Samuels."

"Air Force?"

"Yes, sir. I'm the General's Executive Officer."

"Want a little piece of advice, Major? Get reass'd to NASA. That's where all the action's gonna be. Out there."

"I'm uh—I'm under orders to bring you to see General Hammond, sir."

"Never heard of him."

"He replaced General West. He says it's important. It has to do with the Stargate."

That finally got Jack's full attention and he turned around slowly, his eyes not entirely focused for a moment as he thought back to two years ago when he had left Abydos.

Life back in the real world wasn't quite was he had expected to find when he had decided to live.

Hearing the word "Stargate" again filled him with dread and a sense of promise that he hadn't felt in a long time.

The last thing he had said before returning to Earth through the 'Gate was, "See you around, Doctor Jackson."

This time, the first thing that came to mind when he heard the word Stargate was one word.

_Daniel._


End file.
